The number of complaints by Nigerian telecoms subscribers in Q4 2017 decreased slightly according to the newly-summarised quarterly complaints report released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The regulator said as at the end of last year, it received a total of 17,247 complaints - representing a minor decrease from the Q3's record of 18,711 complaints.

52% of these complaints are attributed to MTN, 20% to Globacom, 17% to Airtel and 11% to 9mobile.

Billing issues make up the bulk of complaints received during the quarter (51.1%). The outlined billing issues relate to deduction, charging for unauthorised services, unsuccessful calls and undelivered SMS, as well as the inability to change tariff plan, charges for Caller Ring Back Tune not downloaded, deductions for unsolicited VAS/promos and virtual top-up deducted but not received.

Other major complaints relate to Value Added Services (14.6%), Call Set Up (8.4%), SMS (8%), data service issues (6.7%) and SIM card issues (3.2%).

The NCC attributes the decrease in complaints to the rise in the level of consumer awareness, supported by the addition of recently developed channels of engagement including a toll free line, Consumer Web Portal and various social media handles.

The Commission also notes that the activation of Do-Not-Disturb (DND) services on users' lines also helped reduce complaints filed. Introduced in 2016, the DND service enables subscribers to manage unsolicited telemarketing messages on their lines.

Of the 8.2 million subscribers that have activated the DND Service on their lines as at December 2017, almost four million of them are MTN users. 9mobile has 1.825 million users activated while Globacom and Airtel have slightly over 700,000 each.

Should the VAS Aggregator License process realise, the expectation is that this will further reduce complaints.